Ibanez JS1 Joe Satriani Signature

Joe Satriani is one of Steve Vai's contemporaries. He is well known in the guitar industry but slightly less known than Vai outside of it. Nowadays he is mostly known as the founder of the G3 tour which takes him and 2 other virtuoso guitar players on tour around the world. This Ibanez was Satrianis first model with Ibanez. The current model is not much different than this one. It has a much simpler finish than the new versions. The guitar features a basswood body in the smooth liquidy JS body shape. The neck is 22 frets with a rosewood fretboard and his own neck profile. Early models had the original Edge tremolo but this was changed later as Ibanez advanced in their tremolo designs. This guitar has two humbuckers and a master volume and tone knob with a 3 way for switching. It has a PAF pro in the neck and a FRED in the bridge. The FRED is one of Satrianis signature pickups.

UTILIZATION

The JS body shape is super confortable. It gets very thin up at the top so its fits well against your body and arm. The smooth contours along the cutaways help with upper fret access because you do not have any hard edges around anywhere. This model being so old has the old style Ibanez neck join which is similar to what you would find on a Fender guitar. While the body is thin at the top it gets nice and thick towards the bottom so the guitar has a thick tone and nice weight to it. It does not feel flimsy like some Ibanez guitars tend to feel.

SOUNDS

With the Satriani designed FRED in the bridge this guitar has a crazy sound that only Satriani can really take advantage of. I am not a huge fan of the Fred pickup. The FRED works well for him though. You can really get crazy harmonics from it and it is super clear. It is kinda like Steve Vais EVO pickups cousin or something. The PAF pro in the neck is a classic tone. With this guitar only having 22 frets you get a classic neck position tone. Satriani only gave this guitar 22 frets for that reason. With the neck pickup that much farther out you get even fatter tones from the position. The further away a pickup is from the bridge the more beefy it sounds and this is as far as you can get it. This beefy sound with the basswood really give the PAF pro a nice even tone that you want for smooth leads in the neck position.

OVERALL OPINION

These guitars are pretty much collectors items now. Like old JEM guitars you can find newer models for much cheaper nowadays. And unlike the JEM the Satriani model have not changed very much over the years. I like the pickups in the new ones better and I think most other people do to. The pickup they replaced the FRED with is called the Mo' Jo and it has a more usable tone to it. If you are looking for a Satriani guitar you are better off getting a newer model unless you get a really good deal on one of these old ones.

This was the first model released for the famous Joe Satriani. The guitar isn't that much different from today's guitars, surprisingly. The JS-1 features a basswood body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, pearl dot inlays, an Edge tremolo (later changed to the Lo Pro, I think), HH configuration (although some had HSH), one volume, one tone and a three or five way switch depending on the configuration.

UTILIZATION

The fretwork on this was nice, but there was some serious wear from it being used. We had to discount it a good bit because of that. The body also had some nicks and dings, so I can't comment on the overall finish. The neck joint itself was fairly tight, and that's always a good thing. The neck joint itself is an older style, so it will get in the way when playing up on the higher frets. This could bother some people, but I find these older neck joints sound better. The guitar had some decent weight going on it, but it might have been a touch too heavy. These basswood guitars can really vary in weight sometimes, so keep that in mind.

SOUNDS

This guitar sounds unique, and it's thanks to the bridge pickup. The DiMarzio FRED is an interesting pickup when it comes to harmonics and overall sound. The harmonics really jump out, but the FRED is kinda like an oddly tweaked PAF Pro. It can work for rhythms, but it's more of a lead pickup. The PAF Pro in the neck with basswood is heaven. Basswood helps mellow out the PAF Pro, and the additional midrange really boosts this thing into a shred machine. You can also get some extremely nice clean tones with this thanks to the coil split in the bridge.

OVERALL OPINION

These models can be a bit hard to find, and I find the prices they go for are a bit much. You can find a newer JS with less wear for a good bit less on eBay. Those are the ones that I'd personally seek out as they're pretty much the same thing.